


Wordlessly Breathtaking

by HathorAroha



Category: Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-02
Updated: 2017-10-02
Packaged: 2019-01-08 08:55:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12251127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HathorAroha/pseuds/HathorAroha
Summary: Plumette shows young Prince Adam a beautiful view through a telescope.





	Wordlessly Breathtaking

Plumette knew where to find Adam any evening, especially cold winter evenings, either reading a book in the library or having a hot cocoa brewed up by Mrs Potts in the kitchens. Tonight, the boy wasn’t in the library, so that had left only the kitchens as the other possible place to find him, and there he was, sitting at the table, talking with Mrs Potts about his day. 

Descending the stairs, Plumette trailed one hand over the railing, to be greeted exuberantly by Lumiere at the last step. Throwing his arms around her, Plumette found herself dipped to the floor as Lumiere kissed her as though he hadn’t seen her in years.

“ _Mon amour!”_ he said, after the kiss was over, and he brought her standing up on her feet again, “I have not seen you in forever! The last star should have burned out by now!” 

Plumette giggled, giving him another kiss on the lips, “It has not even been an hour, darling.” 

“ _Ahem.”_

Both turned at the interruption to see Cogsworth looking at them with an annoyed expression. 

“You finished yet?” 

“Cogsworth!” Lumiere exclaimed, rushing over to throw his arms around him, “I haven’t seen you in  _minutes_!” 

“Get off me,” he muttered, but didn’t make any attempt to move away. 

While Lumiere was distracted, Plumette made her way to the table where the boy prince was still talking with the housekeeper. Both looked up and smiled broadly at Plumette’s appearance. 

“Cup of tea too, my dear?” Mrs Potts offered, already picking up the kettle. 

“Perhaps later,” Plumette declined, before addressing Adam in a mysterious voice, “Do you want to come with me?” 

“Why?” 

“There’s something I’d like to show you.” 

“Can Mrs Potts come too?” 

Plumette considered the question, looking over at Mrs Potts, thinking again of the thing she wanted to show the prince. 

“If she would like to.” 

“Where is this something?” 

“Up among the stars,” Plumette explained. 

“isn’t it a bit nippy tonight?” 

“I can put a warm coat on,” Adam insisted, now already standing up and joining Plumette’s side, slipping his small hand through hers. “I don’t mind the cold.” 

“We will not be going outside proper, but somewhere where you can see the stars from within the castle.” Plumette assured.

“Well, I think I’ll stay in here, keep the kettle hot, so you can have a warm cup of tea when you come back.” 

Lumiere reappeared at Plumette’s side, sliding an arm around her waist. “Do not travel to the stars without me at your side, my love.” he murmured. 

“Oh never,” Plumette assured, snuggling against him, before nodding over at Cogsworth, “Coming to see the stars too?” 

“What, and listen to your lovesickness?” Cogsworth quipped. 

“Cogsworth! You like stars too!” Adam encouraged, “Come please?” 

Taking out his pocketwatch, he took a quick look at the time, then pocketed it again in his coat with a warm smile, despite himself. 

“I may as well. After all, people have used the stars to measure time’s passing too.” 

Lumiere groaned, “No boring history lessons,  _mon ami_.” 

“How  _did_ people use the stars to tell the time?” Adam asked, as though Lumiere had never spoken at all. 

“Ah!” Cogsworth brightened up at once, clearly gladdened he had at least someone willing to listen to him. “That is a long history, but let us go see what Plumette has to show us tonight.” 

* * *

“Alright, come this way,” Plumette ushered the others, still holding on to Adam’s hand, giving it a little squeeze of love as they rounded a corner to the servants wing. “I already have it all set up. It is a very fortunate night tonight.” 

“What have you got set up in there?” Adam asked her. 

“A telescope,” Plumette revealed, “To look at the stars. But tonight, I want to show you a wanderer.” 

“A wanderer?” 

“Would you mean a planet?” Cogsworth spoke up, “That is what the Ancient Greeks called them, and planet translates from the Ancient Greek to “wanderer”.” 

Plumette stopped before her door, a hand laid on the wood, nodding over at Cogsworth, eyes shining in the light. “Yes, Cogsworth. That is exactly what I mean.” 

“Oh!” Adam’s eyes widened with his excitement, “Which one is it?” 

“You’ll see. It’s beautiful,” Plumette hesitated, tilting her head this way and that, “That is not a strong enough word, but it will have to do.” 

“Magnificent, like me?” Lumiere suggested with an unapologetic grin, “Dazzling?” 

“Lumiere, I swear to God,” Cogsworth muttered under his breath. 

“Breathtaking? Like your kisses?” Lumiere continued, ignoring Cogsworth. 

“Yes!” Plumette nodded, “Breathtaking.” 

Plumette pushed the door open, now leading them straight over to an open window overlooking the balcony. Sticking out through the window was a small telescope set up on a wooden tripod. It appeared she had already focussed it on one spot in the sky. She beckoned them all over with a finger, before stretching a hand out to Adam, gently tugging him to the telescope, crouching to his level. 

“Look through the telescope, Adam,” she whispered as the boy gingerly touched the eyepiece. “And tell me what you see.” 

“You don’t know?” 

“I do know. But you have to tell me what you see.” 

“Why?” 

“Just look!” 

At her encouragement, Adam placed himself before the telescope as Plumette stood up and shifted over a little to give him room. She couldn’t help a smile, knowing what he was seeing through the modest telescope’s eyepiece. Small it might have been, but great things in the stars it revealed to all who gazed through. 

Then–a great gasp from the boy, his head snapping up to look up at Plumette with wide blue eyes and gaping mouth. His face was the picture of complete astonishment and awe. Plumette was sure her grin couldn’t get any bigger. 

“Well? What do you think?” 

“Is it– _that_ planet you talked about yesterday?” 

“The very same–Saturn.” 

“It’s…” he turned and stared through the eyepiece again, mouth dropping open in awe once more, “It’s…” 

“Unspeakably beautiful?” Plumette suggested with a little laugh, delighted by his open awe, “Wordlessly breathtaking?” 

The boy nodded earnestly even as he still stared upon the planet’s majesty in the eyepiece. 

“I want to go there,” Adam said, “How far away is it?” 

“Very,  _very_ far away,” Plumette said, “We don’t know just how far it is.” 

“Can we go there in a lifetime?” 

“In a dream or story, perhaps, but not a lifetime.” 

Another few moments passed as Plumette shared a smile with Lumiere and Cogsworth, who were both still waiting for their turn with the telescope. It was Lumiere who stepped forward and put a gentle hand on the boy’s shoulder, giving it a friendly squeeze. 

“Mind if I look upon this beauty too, my prince? Surely no planet is more beautiful than Plumette!” 

“It is beautiful,” Adam said as he straightened up and moved aside, “But not as beautiful as Plumette.” 

A soft chuckle permeated the room from the adults. 

“I’m flattered,” Plumette said, “But I’m not sure I compare.” 

Lumiere now bent down to look through the eyepiece, staring at the same picture of magnificence that Adam had beheld for the first time tonight. 

“Ah!” Lumiere exclaimed, "Magnificent Saturn! How I long to steal one of your rings to place upon my beloved’s finger! How can the best of jewellery makers in France ever hope to create a ring to compare with yours?” 

“I don’t think it really cares,” Cogsworth remarked from behind him. 

Lumiere finished looking through the telescope, straightening up and twirling around to face Cogsworth. 

“Then it shouldn’t mind if we were to, ah,  _borrow_ a ring for Plumette.” 

“Move aside, Lumiere, I want to look too.” 

“Look? Where? Ah, the telescope!” 

With a dramatic flourish at the instrument, Lumiere exaggerated a side-step away from the telescope, Cogsworth shuffling over and bending down with a great air of dignity to gaze upon Saturn too. But irritated as he might have been with Lumiere’s overdramatic declarations, even he could not be annoyed long once he cast his eye upon the grandeur of the jewel of the night sky. 

“Magnificent,” he murmured, “Simply magnificent.” 

* * *

Later that night, in the early hours of morning, Adam, deep in slumber, dreamed of that same magnificent world, flying through great sweeping rings of breathtaking majesty and grace. 

And he dreamed too of a small, strange thing diving into the atmosphere of this same beautiful world, and felt at once, even in the dream, both great joy and yet great sadness to see it disappear forever into the embrace of Saturn. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a few things, including when I first saw Saturn through a telescope (granted, not an old 18th-century telescope, but a modern one) at the tender age of nine, and, of course, Cassini’s mission coming to an end on 15th September 2017. Yes, they had telescopes strong enough to clearly make out the rings (the “Cassini Division” is named after the man who discovered the gap in Saturn’s rings in the 1600s) even in the 1700s. I had initially written this on Tumblr last month as a sort of tribute to the Cassini spacecraft that had given us so many beautiful images of Saturn.


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